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Illinois mayor prepares residents to evacuate due to flood threat

A boy in Cairo, Illinois, looks over a levee wall holding back floodwaters from the Ohio River.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: 100 residents evacuated in Missouri floodway area

An Illinois mayor asks some residents to be ready to evacuate in town of Cairo

A federal judge ruled the Army Corps of Engineers may burst a Mississippi River levee

The plan would flood more than 130,000 evacuated acres in southeastern Missouri

(CNN) -- An Illinois mayor urged some residents on Friday to make plans to evacuate the town as the flood-engorged Mississippi River reached record levels.

Cairo Mayor Judson Childs asked "senior citizens, people with medical conditions or special needs along with families with children that live in single-story homes" to be ready leave the flood-threatened town, according to a written statement.

Earlier on Friday, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers may intentionally burst a Mississippi River levee in an effort to prevent the flooding of the town.

Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, ruled that a 1928 law permitted the breach of the levee to ease pressure on the Mississippi River.

The Corps' plan would flood more than 130,000 evacuated acres -- much of it farmland -- in southeastern Missouri, said Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster.